


An Occurrence

by ExpositionFairy



Category: Tron (Movies), Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Legacy (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-19
Updated: 2012-11-19
Packaged: 2017-11-19 02:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/567849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExpositionFairy/pseuds/ExpositionFairy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things end a little bit differently.  </p><p>(Or not.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Occurrence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grey_sw (grey)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grey/gifts).



He’d been  _so close_.

A few more centimeters, a few more nanoseconds, and he would have been there, would have been  _through_ ; the portal’s blinding glow had been close enough to touch.  But the tidal pull emanating from behind is too strong, and he’s flying backwards, yanked rudely away from his goal at the last moment.  No longer liberator or luminary or even solely his own anymore; just a stray bit of matter crashing back into the celestial body that had thrown it off in the first place.  
  
He knows what comes next, of course.  
  
——————————  
  
Except it doesn’t.   
  
The impact sends them both skidding backwards along the last meter and a half of bridge and through the archway, and they tumble halfway down the steps beyond, coming to rest in a tangle of bruised, battered limbs.     
  
For endless micros, neither of them speaks, the only sounds their ragged breathing and the crash of waves below, wound throughout with the diminishing hum from the portal as it finally shuts down, leaving the two of them in darkness.  Flynn’s arms are locked around him, trembling faintly, but as warm and strong as he remembers them, and they don’t relax when the lights go out.   
  
He could break the hold, easily.  Could snap Flynn’s arms like dry sticks, kick him again before he can rise, throw him down the remaining steps to the black surface of the Sea.  Part of him— _most_  of him, he insists to himself—even wants to.   For abandoning him, for so blatantly favoring Sam and the glitching _ISO_ , for ripping his dream away from him  _again_  when he’d been so close to finally seeing it fulfilled.  Instead, he simply shifts within the circle of his User’s hold until he’s staring directly into the face that he no longer fully shares, and whispers again “Why?”  
  
“You could have done it.  You could have ended everything right there.  You did everything else for them, so  _why didn’t you finish it_?”  
  
Flynn looks back up at him, and there’s no hesitation or avoidance in his answer this time.  “…I did what I had to do for Sam.  I could have ended it, yes.  But I didn’t want to.  I never wanted that, ever.  You were right…I made you a promise, and this time I intend to keep it.”  
  
“I stayed for you.”  
  
To that Clu can think of nothing at all to say.  His arms find their way around Flynn, echoing the User’s embrace, and he buries his face in the smooth black fabric of Flynn’s robe.  

They’ll get up eventually, make their way back to the city.  They’ll find Rinzler and repair him and finally the three of them will be back together, working to build their perfect system.  And one day the portal will re-open, and Flynn will share his world, the way he’d promised.  Clu imagines he might even have it in him to tolerate Sam, just for that.  
  
The light is back, and growing brighter, but Clu doesn’t notice.  
  
——————————  
  
The shockwave from the reintegration rips across the sea, disintegrating everything in its path before finally collapsing back in upon itself and winking out, leaving only silence in its wake.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the short story [An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge](http://fiction.eserver.org/short/occurrence_at_owl_creek.html), by Ambrose Bierce.


End file.
